


Lots of Words On Why Hawke Should Smooch An Abstract Concept

by Firelight_and_Rain



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Freeform, Meta, Nonfiction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 13:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13248984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firelight_and_Rain/pseuds/Firelight_and_Rain
Summary: I expound extensively on why I THINK that Hawke/Anders/Justice (or, at least, Hawke/Anders and Hawke/Justice concurrently) is the only true (tm) way to ship Hawke/(DA2!)Anders.





	Lots of Words On Why Hawke Should Smooch An Abstract Concept

**Author's Note:**

> I keep thinking about this meta even if no one else wants it. Merry holidays.
> 
> cw for: brief mentions of ableism, the rivalmance, and abuse. (usually together, for obvious reasons). allusion to sexual assault. mild criticism of all characters addressed. i'm not unhappy about either the end of Act 3 or the use of the mage metaphor (tm).

It’s probably because of the excessive amount of time I’ve spent playing and thinking about the game that the joke’s worn off.

I mean, it is a joke, right? You wouldn’t include the prospect of what I shall hereinafter refer to as The Spirit Threesome (OK, let’s just go with The Spirit OT3, because this is not my first fanwork on the subject) in at least two dialogue wheels without the option to establish Hawke’s feelings one way or another on a companion if it weren’t … Actually. Why would you do that. This is an RPG.

Commentary On Why Justice Is In Love With Hawke, And Hawke Should Be Able to Romance Justice, And The Usual Tagline of Any Dragon Age Meta: The Narrator (in This Case Varric) Is a Filthy Liar

It’s a pity that my favorite character is almost entirely relegated to DLC. Now, I don’t think that BioWare ruined Justice by writing his arc in DA 2 the way they did (although the execution of the details was … questionable), but Justice in DA 2 mostly exists in the space between the lines, and it’s hard to decipher that kind of portrayal without context; most of that is established in Awakening. (Which I would be doing a second playthrough of right now, if I could find a save generator that worked for it). You know the single-minded spirit on the path to corruption that you could easily read from DA 2’s canon, and that you’d hardly be able to avoid if you consumed the franchise through fanspaces?

That’s Justice the way I’m … well, how I come across if you force conversation on me when I’m about two mean words away from a meltdown. I’ll get back to his DA 2 behavior later.

He comes across as very human in Awakening, and even when you get to meet him in the Fade. Well, that’s not right! you say. Spirits are inhuman. They’re eldritch! They’re spooky! Well, in-universe, sure. And I’d argue that Justice hasn’t had a lot of interaction with mortals, aside from the Baroness. But no spirit is going to be able to craft a convincing avatar from an isolated concept. Justice, from his plate armor, formal way of speaking and the provincial, almost fairytale-like section of the Fade he resides in, is a knight in shining armor. Or, glowing armor. For me, BioWare’s two big franchises are at their best when they’re highly conscious of the genres they reside in, and how to deconstruct (Dragon Age) or reconstruct (Mass Effect) the attendant archetypes. And the knightly archetype is a highly romantic one.

Well, but then they put the poor guy in a rotting corpse and it’s all a horror story, isn’t it?

Awakening wasn’t done with having a resident knight in shining armor yet, though. Justice’s two interfaceable Issues are basically agnosticism angst (which, considering that my Tabris basically told him ‘believe what you believe but I think the Maker is full of shit’, set me up for some bewilderment when Anders getting possessed seemed to make him more literalist about his theology when Thedas’ closest thing to an angel is riding shotgun and already established he knows that he kinda doesn’t know shit), and worrying about getting corrupted because he’d inherited some of his host’s memories and was starting to appropriate Kristoff’s romantic love for his wife.

and worrying about getting corrupted because he’d inherited some of his host’s memories and was starting to appropriate Kristoff’s romantic love for his wife.

I’m sorry, but that’s the crux of the issue. Justice has A Worry. The Warden can talk to him about The Worry, for which there seems to be no satisfactory outcome. An Event Happens that gives Justice more agency in the context of The Worry (i.e. not being a rotting corpse), and a situation very close to the original Worry establishes itself. The Worry is Justice falling in love with his host’s romantic partner. Anders falls in love with Hawke, and can become Hawke’s romantic partner (the eventuality I will assume for the rest of this thing). Q.E.D., Justice is in love with Hawke. It’s very frustrating and inane to assume that this storyline doesn’t have a confrontation, ever. Q.E.D. let Hawke smooch the spirit, BioWare!

I wish there was more foreshadowing to dig into about the eventual merger and then Hawke’s presence in Anders and Justice’s story, but I don’t remember much. Feel free to send me any in the comments.

Before addressing DA 2, though, I will point out that Justice muses to Velanna that he’d find it interesting to present female. Justice is queer. Fuck BioWare’s persistent habit of coding all their cishet characters as high fantasy, upstanding heroes and their queer characters as low fantasy rogues (1), Thedas’ spirit of Justice is queer.

(Also also. Spirits are spooky and inhuman? Maybe in theory, but BioWare has a funny habit of using oft-autistic symptoms for their spirits’ behavioral quirks. In Justice’s case: hyperfocus on a subject, fluid identity and memory, volume control issues, a lack of generalized sympathy coupled with hyperempathy, a regimented view of morality, formal behavior with close associates and, in DA 2, what I’d easily see as meltdowns brought on by sensory overstimulation and a confrontational environment. So I raise my eyebrows a bit at this unintentional coding being very effective at communicating Innocence, Naivety, Inhumanity, Danger to such a large portion of the fanbase that so many of the same fanbase that got Garrus Vakarian (2) converted to a romance option says ‘spirit characters as romance options? Y’all are gross.’)

(1). Although I also enjoy leaning into this dichotomy as a way to implicate high fantasy tropes themselves as simplistic and authoritarian, but I doubt BioWare had that in mind the way I’d prefer.

(2.) I’m not judging, I’m right there with you.

Sadly, Justice - well, no, he doesn’t take a back seat to DA 2, since it’s as much his story as Anders’, and it’s as much Anders’ story as Hawke’s. However, he gets a lot less screen time. I have to wonder if this is in order to keep the number of scenes in Anders’ romance commensurate with the other options’ without sacrificing Anders’ own screen time. (Although every time Anders’ onscreen, so is Justice, either of them have less agency when the other is fronting, and are not recognized as present by the narrative lens).

Speaking of narrative lens - I think there’s a very good diegetic reason for Justice’s shadow being tangibly present in the story, with the entity himself less so.

Varric doesn’t like him very much. He also doesn’t have any of the context I do from Awakening - and while we have to assume a certain level of honesty for the scenes where he’s depicted as present alongside Hawke, well. You can read Varric and Hawke as being bosom buddies, and Varric having the full story. I don’t in my continuity. Varric is an information broker. Granted, Hawke is not canonically part of the major extralegal activities of the mage underground or the Templars - for the Arcane Defender, Anders makes that decision for them. And while that’s not out of character for our brooding martyr, we also have Hawke the renowned criminal tossing their career in the face of their patron while they’re desperate enough for money to go into the Deep Roads, having easy access to multiple of their contacts throughout the game and I know they’re side quests but constantly getting involved in everyone’s private wars Kirkwall.

We also know that Varric lies about Hawke for the follower count, even when they’re living in the same city, drinking at the same bar.

If I’m gonna be playing this game as a romance (and until I have another source of branching narrative love story between magical queer apostates giving awful pick-up lines and fighting the Man, try to stop me), I’d rather surmise that Hawke was lying to Varric (to protect their faction contacts, Anders’ own reasoning) than Anders make Hawke’s decisions for them. And as bosom buddies as Varric might be canon, he’s still getting interrogated by the Inquisition back in Kirkwall alone, and sunshine and smiles as he might be in the vagrant roster that Hawke adventures with, man, does he sound bitter. (3)

(3). I have not played Inquisition, because I don’t have the hardware to run it. I also don’t have it integrated into my continuity, since I haven’t gathered that it’s really about any of the characters or conflicts that I fell in love with - my Warden and Denerim’s alienage, the Fereldan monarchy, Zevran or Justice, Anders or Hawke or the free and would be free mages. And my gods, I hate the Chantry. I became very emotionally invested in three characters acting out a story in the shadow of a militant theocracy, which is a political battle more than any kind of stand-up fight, and now I’m supposed to play someone named the * Inquisitor *, in charge of * the Inquisition *, repairing that selfsame propaganda arm of the Orlesian Empire? It’s not the story I’m invested in - that’s happening somewhere in the background.

So Varric’s ‘met’ Justice for one scene:

The Shame Crate scene. Varric’s silence speaks to shock and betrayal, and while this wouldn’t change how he interacted with Justice for most of the game’s timeline, it’s been some time since the events of the game by the time he’s being interrogated by Cassandra. His memories could be colored by this later event, or he could be consciously exaggerating the divide between Anders and Justice to protect Anders and, by extension, Hawke, because Hawke is, of course, in love with Anders, the human man, and not personally complicit in Justice’s presence, obviously.

I mean, from where I’m standing, they’re all worse off out of a poly relationship, but that’s my own queer, poly ethics against the in-universe morality of a member of the Inquisition. And even if I didn’t read Varric as himself uncomfortable with Justice for cultural and religious reasons (which I do), he’s not stupid, he’s a pragmatist, and he’s more inclined to protect Hawke than he is Justice.

Alright, that’s the scene that (as far as I can recall) Varric and Justice will necessarily be in the same place. Even if Hawke didn’t bring Varric and Anders along at the same time for any of Justice’s other appearances (his recruitment, Tranquility, Night Terrors, Dissent, and Legacy), Anders and Varric are still friends. Unlike Hawke, Varric doesn’t have an obligation to respect Justice’s presence (since it’s heavily implied that Hawke’s romance with Anders is sexual), and without any personal interaction with the spirit -

I’m familiar with the reading that Justice essentially acts as a domestic abuser in Anders’ arc. I think that’s a valid reading, but not one I subscribe to (1. Justice can’t leave even if he wants to, which as a metaphysical rule might not mean much allegorically, 2. I’d rather read Anders’ arc as synthesis with his pride, represented here by Justice, resulting in the violent rejection of his oppression). It’s probably the one that Varric subscribes to.

However, there isn’t a happy ending to that story. Hawke swoops in to chase Justice off? The rivalmance is much more explicitly abusive (by Hawke, to Anders, and to Justice as well if you’re operating within diegetic metaphysics) than Anders and Justice’s default situation. Won’t get into the details here, because, honestly? Spirit shipping is fun to think about and probably a hard sell. Transparent ableist abuse isn’t, and I’m already too familiar with ableism in the fandom to care to go another round on defining it.

I got a happy ending in my continuity, though. Hawke and Anders tear down the Gallows, swear their love to each other and their cause, and run away together. In-universe, and thematically, this only makes sense to me with Justice there, too.

Justice thinking of Hawke as a distraction? Can be taken at face value - a lot of what Hawke gets up to isn’t directly serving the cause - but, in context of Awakening, it’s easy to read Justice’s reticence towards Hawke as fear of the (romantic) feelings that they inspire. If Anders believes that exposing Justice to his humanity is going to corrupt the spirit, it’s very likely that Justice is subjected to those anxieties himself.

Isn’t it just delicious, given that spirits are Thedas’ closest things to angels, and that Anders is a queer man fighting to reform his religion to accept his personhood, while battling low self-worth, not to take this in-universe fairytale at face value? I think it is.

Then there’s the little glow on Anders’ hand when he goes to touch Hawke’s face in the estate romance scene. That’s pretty well established to only ever happen when Justice is fronting or acting in synergy with his host. Maybe authorial intent here is to highlight Anders’ (technical) inhumanity, but whatever. That’s not the precedent. And here’s where as an Andersmance fan I /need/ to get into headcanon territory, because while Varric might seem to be a fan of the bodice-ripper style (and that’s a valid stylistic choice for DA 2 in general), where implied desire and tempestuous attraction suffice, as someone who takes this story far too seriously, I’m not about that. 

“So he’s an unwilling participant in our threesome?” Hawke doesn’t necessarily choose this option, of course. And it’s not a very fun option, because you don’t get a straight answer on exactly what Justice means by ‘Hawke is a distraction’ (his own reluctant attraction?), ‘one of the few things we disagree on’ / Anders’ reluctance to address Justice (Justice still fighting this course of action? Just Anders scared of Hawke thinking of him as an abomination, or uncomfortable himself with any of the implications of Justice being involved with his love life in any way?). And you. Kind of need a straight answer. The question is there on the dialogue wheel and there’s no way to get around it.

So let’s headcanon what we want at this juncture. There’s some good fic on the subject. I choose to headcanon that Anders and Hawke start trying to communicate with Justice in earnest, so that they can all work to stay together.

(Not on topic for Justice x Hawke, but a couple other scenes I like because good gods I’m so thirsty for Justice content -

He’s perfectly civil and helpful in Night Terrors. Much more of a grump than his Awakening incarnation, although he was always a bit of a grump, but the best Fade tour guide someone dropped in it to deal with some demons could ask for. It would’ve been in-character for my Hawke to accost him and demand, ‘So what’s the deal with you hanging out in Anders’ head if we want to fuck?’, though, and I’m forever bitter I don’t get that scene.

In the conversation after Justice, when you get Anders the materials, he can talk briefly about how he hopes Justice will be alright after it’s all said and done, and be in a better situation without him, and GOSH, my HEART).

And Isabela’s scene with Hawke after the estate romance scene? I mean, why not? She gets kudos for being one of precious few people who sees Justice as a person, As Should Be, she knows Anders fairly well, and she knows Hawke well, too, depending. She sees it. She might be joking … but then again, I don’t entirely think she is. I read it as her fishing for information. And Hawke can be serious in saying ‘no’, but granted that this is an rpg, it’s distinctly odd that they can’t seriously say ‘yes, I am banging both of them’. (If anyone in this damned setting is worldly about polyamory, it’s Isabela. *waves at a certain offscreen scene with her, my Tabris and their bosom friend Zev back in DA:O*)

And any of the canon romance scenes are prime material for transformation, because, barring poly shipping Varric into the scenario, he wasn’t there. ‘If you don’t tell me, I’ll just make something up.’ Indeed. Anders, despite being Varric’s close friend, doesn’t take well to prying questions. In my read, Blue Hawke would take that cue to keep mum, Purple Hawke would bullshit Varric more each time it came up … and honestly /I/ wouldn’t ask Red Hawke that kind of question.

Thematically, I already mentioned that I choose a lot of my read of the game based on what I prefer to make of Anders’ arc. If I want Anders’ arc to be positive and proactive, which I do, granted shaped by my habitual consumption of Western genre literature, I like reading the story as Anders eventually embracing his pride and anger to strike back at the Chantry. That choice is made rather explicit by the option of the friendship or rivalry path with him. Let him embrace his identity; or try to define it for him. (Anders is a complicated character, by which I mean here that he’s a canonically bisexual, mentally ill, disabled radical in a high fantasy setting written at the same time to be Brooding Edgy White Male Love Interest Mk. 2000. But what we got is a route I enjoy tearing into, and another that turns my stomach; the rivalry path is too coherent, too realistic, for me to want to transform when I have other material).

And then, if you help Justice with … the selfsame quest, on the friendship and romance path, to end up at the finale I did, Hawke, metaphorically speaking, embraces both the Anders who likes soft things and his personal freedoms and the Anders who’d die for his cause. All story is metaphor. This is fantasy. I’d like my hero to embrace the cause, too. (4)

(Literally).

(4.) (I play an apostate. It’s Hawke’s identity, too, that they’re fighting for, their cause. And that means a lot to me, a queer disabled person, who sees at least some of my and my friends’ experiences in their story).

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.


End file.
